Is It Really Worth A Try?
Mom, can I love God and be famous?
It would be really hard, I said.
It’s worth a try. She added.
No, it’s not, I cringed.
This is a question my oldest posed to me one morning over breakfast. We were having a discussion about loving God. At the end, she asked a question I think we all want to know. Then, she followed with the response of a risk, I think, many of us are willing to take. In Galatians 1:10, Paul questions, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
If we’re able to please man, we may not be truly serving Christ. Can we have the best of both worlds? It’s worth a try, you may say. Is it?
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Matthew 6:24
I cannot serve God and myself. I cannot serve God and my idols. I cannot serve two masters. I still try. He still corrects.
Am I saying that the famous and rich cannot love God? Not at all. I’m saying only one can be our master.
How can we detect our master/idol? Tim Keller says, “An idol is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”
What do you love more than God? What do you fear losing? I’ll go first — my kids.
For more on idolatry, see this post from “Every Square Inch” or Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller.
